BOOK REVIEWS circles. The existence of an album of Carapecchia's original designs at the Courtauld Institute discovered by J. TONNA and D. DE LUCCA, Dr John Cauchi, has definitely Romano Carapecchia, Studies in Mal­ established the authorship of most of tese Architecture, 1·: Department of Valletta's eighteenth century build­ Architecture, University of Malta; ings and of other towns. It has also 1975; pp. 41, illus; 50c. helped to draw the line of distinction With the nomination of Romano between the designer and the execu­ Carapecchia to the post of Chief tive architect, a practice still preva­ Architect and 'fontaniere' to the lent to-day. Order in 1706, Valletta became des­ The list of Carapecchia's works is tined to undergo a major transforma­ both startling and impressive. It is tion less than a hundred-and-fifty impressive because of his enormous years after its birth. With the city output, and startling because it has and its population secure behind an changed most of our long-established, impregnable ring of fortified walls, but mistaken, ideas about the true the Grandmaster and his Council felt authorship of many of the most im­ that the time had arrived to change portant facades, churches, gateways, the outward appearance of the sombre porticos, etc of Valletta of the first and fortress-like palaces and other half of the eighteenth century. By public buildings in Valletta and else­ means of unimpeachable documentary where. Perellos' talent scouts in Rome evidence, this book has corrected had spotted young Carapecchia, who many misconceptions, and can be although only thirty-eight years old, safely considered to be one of the had already established himself as a most important and original contribu­ talented architect of Baroque Rome tions to the study of Maltese archi­ with a number of highly-successful tecture of recent years. projects to his credit. From his studio Michael Ellul in Rome, Carapecchia had already showed his worth with designs for G. ZAMMIT MAEMPEL, An Out­ buildings in Malta, and his prestige line of Maltese Geology, Malta, and fame preceded his arrival here. Progress Press, 1977, 44 pp., illus., In this splendid monograph, Jo £1.50. Tonna and Dennis De Lucca, working T. H. Huxley once wrote that "the together in an uncommon teacher­ historical student knows that his first student relationship, throw a com­ business should be to inquire into the pletely new light on the history of validity of his evidence, and the Maltese architecture. This book has nature of the record in which the not, unfortunately, received the evidence is contained, that he may acclaim it deserves and passed almost be able to form a proper estimate of unnoticed except in specialized the correctness of the conclusions 176 BOOK REVIEWS which may be drawn from that evi­ relation of the Maltese stratigraphy dence". In more than one way, the to that of other countries both far and geologist is also a historian. He near, the historical survey of local delves deep for evidence not in writ­ geological maps, and soils and their ten records, but in that thin crustal deposits. veneer of our Earth which is acces­ The book is amply illustrated by sible to man. photographs mostly taken by the The vast body of evidence on geo­ author himself. Some of them throw logy is massed unlimitedly around us, new light on already known aspects but it takes a refined mind and a lot of local geology, whilst others, of scientific scholarship to sift the especially those of fossils from the evidence, inquire into its validity, and author's collection and published for assess correctly the conclusions pro­ the first time, are of special interest vided by that evidence. Dr George to the more specialized reader. Zammit Maempel, in this welcome This is a book which no visitor to addition to the rather sparse literature the National Museum of Natural on Maltese geology, does exactly this. History should go without, and which Most of the evidence he collected no real lover of the Malta landscape himself, and his familiar figure should miss. The value of its many armed with camera and hammer and original observations, and the validity chisel is well known to quarry-owners of its conclusions, are guaranteed by and to frequenters of our geological the author's scientific preparation and sites. his scholarly acumen. The book acquires added interest by Michael Ellul the pleasant way in which it is pre­ sented. It follows chapter by chapter J. QUENTIN HUGHES, "The Defence the same sequence of the Geology of Malta", Quaderno dell'lstituto Halls of the National Museum of Dipartimentale di Architettura ed Natural History of which Dr Zammit Urbanistica, Universita di Catania, Maempel is Assistant Curator, and No. 8, 1976, pp. 1-40. which he personally set up. The book In December 1974, a seminar on is didactic without being pedantic, a the Fortifications of Malta was orga­ no mean achievement when one nized by Professor Quentin Hughes at considers the complexity of the sub­ the University of Liverpool. This ject. The first five chapters are suggested the idea to the Faculty of devoted to local geology generally. Architecture and Town-planning of The next chapters deal with the main Catania University, who had attended rock-formations that make up the the seminar, to dedicate one whole Maltese geological sequence. Of parti­ edition of their Journal to military cular interest, and containing a consi­ architecture in Malta and nearby derable amount of original material, Sicily. are the chapters dealing with the cor- Quentin Hughes, with his custom- BOOK REVIEWS 177 ary thoroughness and conciseness, in The siege of 1565 ended in victory this well-documented essay profusely for the Order, but it also revealed the illustrated with not less than fifty­ inadequacy of the Island's defences, three plans, designs, engravings and mainly because of the undefended photographs, traces the history of high ground overlooking the principal Malta's defences from the time of the forts. The fortified city of Valletta Knights to the years immediately pre­ (1566), besides providing the Order ceding World War Two., with a new and proud abode, and When the Order of St John came Laparelli and Cassar with a personal to Malta, the Knights were already triumph, was intended to deny a experts in the art of fortification. The potential enemy the use of the stra­ Krak des Chevaliers and Margat, their tegic high ground which dominates first strongholds, were advanced the two main harbours and their designs of military architecture of landfronts. These were further their time. No less developed were strengthened in the following century their fortifications in Acre, the Dode­ by the Floriana Lines (1634), and by canese and Rhodes. When they were the two magnificent defensive sys­ offered Malta by Charles V, the tems protecting the Three Cities, the Knights were at first reluctant to Firenzuola (1638) and the Cottonera accept, mainly because the Island was Lines (1663). The ring was closed by practically undefended. But following the building of Forts Ricasoli (1670) outside pressure, they finally gave in, and Manoel (1726), and, the last of and in 1530 set up their headquarters them all, Fort Tigne in 1793. here. Then began a hectic period of As a true and dispassionate archi­ fort-building during which a number tectural historian, Hughes recognizes of military engineers, mostly Italian, the important contribution to Maltese were commissioned for advice. Nicolo military architecture by the British de Flavani, Nicolo Belavante, Piccino, after 1800. During their first fifty Antonio Ferramolino, the Spanish years or so in Malta, the British, Pedro Pardo, Evangelista Menga, An­ overawed by the immensity of the tonio Quinsani, Bartolomeo Genga fortifications and the huge manpower and Baldassare Lanci, followed one necessary to garrison them, gradually another in quick succession. Within a phased out of most of the coastal period of little more than thirty towers and forts away from the main years, they strengthened the then still harbours. The second half of the primitive Fort St Angelo, cut the wet century, with the advent of powerful ditch between the Fort and the Borgo, and long-range guns mounted on built Fort St Michael and the integ­ ships, witnessed a new pattern of rated defensive scheme of the Isola defence, a string of detached forts all and the Borgo, and constructed Fort over the island. These included Sliema St Elmo on the outermost tip of the Point Battery, Forts St Rocco, St Sceberras promontory. Leonardo, Pembroke, Tas-Silg, Deli- 178 BOOK REVIEWS mara, Rinella, Cambridge, Delle Gra­ altri due fondi sono quello dell' zie, Spinola, and W olseley, and the Inquisizione e quello del Capitolo impressive Victoria Lines with their della Cattedrale), comprendente fra Forts Maddalena, Musta and Bin­ l'altro 464 volumi di Acta Originalia gemma. In our times, immediately tra il 1400 e il 1830 (una diecina, pre- before World War Two, the British 1530). Nella presente pubblicazione built the concrete coastal towers, viene stampato l'indice di documenti which though ugly and seemingly out di proprieta del Capitolo della Catte­ of place architecturally, reflect never­ drale, indice redatto dal Canonico theless the military thinking of the Gian Battista Borg, archivista tra il day as much as the earlier fortifica­ 1758 e il 1772, che catalogo e trascris­ tions of the Knights. se quei documenti. Qui vengono pub­ Michael Ellul blicati, in ordine cronologico, i titoli dei documenti relativi al periodo 1313- 1529. Ecco alcuni esempi: "21.1.1313 J. AZZOPARDI, ArchIves of the Concessione del feudo Tabria ad At­ Cathedral of Malta - Misc. 32 A: 1313- tardo de la barba eccetto i due giar­ 1529.